Russia is suffering an ‘epidemic’ of erectile dysfunction, a doctor from Moscow has revealed as he risked going to jail over his criticism of the Ukraine invasion.
Putin‘s war is leaving Russians too anxious to have children, Professor Igor Gundarov said.
He added that the dictator is ‘crazy’ and ‘doesn’t even understand what he’s saying’ as he is hiding the appalling true figures for losses in the war.
The expert’s scathing assessment came in a roundtable at the Moscow city government.
It is exceptionally rare for such criticisms to be made about Putin and the war, carrying the risk of draconian jail sentences.
Putin’s war is leaving Russians too anxious to have children, Professor Igor Gundarov (pictured) said
![Gundarov said: '[We have an] epidemic of psychogenic infertility, erectile dysfunction. Why is there an epidemic of infertility? People live as if in a zoo, with hopeless longing, fear¿ that's the price we are willing to pay for success in the [war]¿'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/22/09/87613115-0-image-a-34_1721635541968.jpg)
Gundarov said: ‘[We have an] epidemic of psychogenic infertility, erectile dysfunction. Why is there an epidemic of infertility? People live as if in a zoo, with hopeless longing, fear… that’s the price we are willing to pay for success in the [war]…’
‘Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin], he speaks beautifully [but] our demographics are actually terrible,’ said Gundarov, chief scientific officer of the Research Institute of Public Health and Health Management at Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy.
‘They blame everything on women, and [Putin] doesn’t even understand what he’s saying.
‘They say that women don’t want to give birth because the standard of living has risen…. she needs to study, to have a career, and so she puts it off until she’s 30, and then it doesn’t work out.’
Such ‘crazy’ reasoning for the falling population was nonsense, he said.
He explained: ‘It’s nothing like that, they do want to give birth. [We have an] epidemic of psychogenic infertility, erectile dysfunction.
‘Why is there an epidemic of infertility? People live as if in a zoo, with hopeless longing, fear… that’s the price we are willing to pay for success in the [war]…’
Putin’s invasion had clear demographic consequences due to the high rate of casualties, which have been hidden from ordinary Russians, he warned.
‘We are going to capture Kyiv, here the price is demographic,’ he said.
‘Why do they not tell us the figures of the dead? Who are they hiding them from?Everyone knows every single soldier, so from whom are they hiding them? From us….?’
He told of a spiralling mortality rate in the young, rising by 40 to 50 per cent.
‘That’s why abortions have fallen, there is no one to conceive, because children are not made with a finger,’ said Gundarov, 77, mocking the Putin regime.
Gundarov also asked: ”Why do they not tell us the figures of the dead? Who are they hiding them from?’
‘All those who make children…. end up [dead] in the steppes near Kherson [in Ukraine] amid the tall grasses.’
He called for an official body to deal with Russia’s population crisis in a ‘mature way’. ‘And do not invite [Putin] – he is of no use anyway,’ he said.
Life expectancy for men in Russia was already bad before the war – 67.5 years. For women, it was 77.5.
The war has caused hundreds of thousands of losses among Russians, especially among young men. This not only reduces the male population but also impacts birth rates.